Service Recovery Paradox

The “service recovery paradox” states that with a highly effective service recovery, a service or product failure offers a chance to achieve higher satisfaction ratings from customers than if the failure had never happened. A little bit less academically, this means that a good recovery can turn angry and frustrated customers into loyal customers. In fact it can create even more goodwill than if things had gone smoothly in the first place.

I came across a blog entry a couple weeks ago by a former waiter who recognized this paradox and routinely capitalized on it by alerting his customers to mistakes they hadn’t even noticed (after the mistakes were corrected) as a reliable way to boost his tip.